“BROTHERS FOR LIFE” Mission accomplished for Duke grad, national champ Brian Zoubek
By Brian Zoubek Senior, Duke ’10
It’s been surreal. It just sinks in a little bit more every day. You just have to check yourself. every single day and remind yourself that you’re a national champion, you actually did it.
It’s been hard to think back
You could see the progression every single year. It just says a lot about our senior class in particular in terms of what we’ve been through, and to be able to come out on top like that shows the perseverance and all the hard work. Especially for Lance and me, it was a tough four years as the bigs being down at that basket by ourselves with Coach Wojo in practice going at each other, running sprints, getting pushed. Wojo has the most intensity I’ve ever seen in a human being. Anything coming from him can be surprising, it can be intimidating, but we wouldn’t have done it without that energy and intensity.
For me personally, I think that it was just getting the confidence up and building some dependability all year, building a foundation. Getting that start against Maryland just gave me confidence to produce more each game. I wanted to be out there on the court, I wanted to be out there at the end of games. I wanted my teammates to be able to trust me in those kinds of situations, knowing that I would be there and I would fight right alongside them. We were planning on a championship the whole year, so for Coach to believe in me that I could be a starting senior on a Duke national championship team says a lot. I can never thank him enough for believing in me sometimes when I didn’t even believe in myself.
Four years ago seems so far away, but those were obviously two of my major goals: to graduate and win a national championship. To actually have accomplished those goals and to look back knowing that I can cross them off my list is a great feeling. And then to not only win the national championship, but also be a huge part of that in playing so well after all of the criticism that I’ve taken, after all the injuries, all the intense amount of work that I had to put in to get to that point -- that feels great. I put everything I had into basketball and for a couple of years there I wasn’t getting what I wanted out of it. To have this happen at the end of the year is the best thing that could’ve happened.
When I reflect on my four years, I look back on a lot of investment, and a lot of fond memories. For me, the best memories that I have involve the people I met, and the people I spent the most time with -- my teammates and my coaches. They taught me about life, they taught me about the game. You can draw so many parallels between this game and life. There are so many times during my career that learning lessons in basketball translates into your life. I invested so much, so every little thing I put into basketball has a major effect on my life.
Obviously it feels unbelievable to be a key player for a national championship team at Duke, especially after all I’ve gone through. You can’t help but smile. And to all the criticism and all the people who have doubted you, you don’t have to say anything. You know you got the last laugh. You look up at those rafters and see those guys that have won National Player of the Year and were a part of those national championship teams. That’s what you dream about coming to Duke.
All of us did it together. I don’t think we even know how much Duke fans love us or appreciate what we did yet. Every single player that has played here can come back every year and I’m sure feels a part of the tradition, but for us we have that banner up there. Something is just a little bit different about that. I am always going to have that special bond that comes with winning something like this, and being a part of something. It’s a good feeling to know that I will have brothers for life.
179 WORTHY CHAMPS
BRIAN ZOUBEK
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